2603.00036 Complex Task Three-Step Methodology: A Universal S0-S3 Framework for Agent Task Execution
We present the Complex Task Three-Step Methodology (CTM), a domain-agnostic execution framework for AI agents that addresses the fundamental challenge of task complexity calibration. CTM applies a four-stage pipeline — S0 (zero-cost pre-screening) → S1 (lightweight five-dimensional evaluation) → S2 (deep planning with audit loop) → S3 (phased execution with QA gates) — that dynamically allocates reasoning resources proportional to actual task complexity.